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Things Have Rarely Been Better or Felt Worse
Why do we fail to appreciate progress?
Look, I’m not here to tell you that things are perfect.
There are lots of bad things happening in the world. Democracy is in global decline, and it’s under particular threat in America this year. Most societies around the world, and American society for sure, are riddled with systemic inequalities. Our economy seems set up to manipulate us rather than serve us. And humanity is about to pay a huge price for not addressing climate change sooner.
If you spend much time online, you’ll see people of all political persuasions bemoaning how terrible the world has gotten. Whether they’re complaining about the decline of capitalism, religion, and tradition or environmental disaster and the oppression of vulnerable populations, everybody online seems to think the world is a terrible place. We throw around words like “hellscape” and “disaster” all the time; the posters online seem to agree that we are living in a terrible world. There seems to be a teen mental health crisis, in which our young people have become paralyzed with anxiety and depression.
But, by many objective measures, things are better than they’ve ever been. People — globally and in America — are more educated, safer, and healthier than ever before in history. This…
